


The Death(s) of Tasha Lem.

by ElementsOfCurie



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Daleks - Freeform, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:13:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23717248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElementsOfCurie/pseuds/ElementsOfCurie
Summary: A work based on Tasha Lem, from Doctor Who. A character that deserves more recognition.
Kudos: 1





	The Death(s) of Tasha Lem.

**Author's Note:**

> So....More Orla Brady inspired content.
> 
> Also, please follow me on Twitter @ElementsOfCurie to get updates on fanfictions! I'll be doing a poll there to decide which short I'll posting next for my Laris/Zhaban series.

Much to her dismay, Tasha was getting old. 

And though you, or any other person gifted with sight, may look at her as if she is crazy and assure her that such a thing mustn't be true, accounting the fact that a) Tasha did nor age, she was simply against it. And b) There was not a single wrinkle upon her features. 

To this Tasha was lightly scold you, shaking her head and tutting for such instipidity. 

Her bones were getting old.

It was something that bothered her as she knelt for prayer, three hundred years after the Doctor had gone down to the surface. Her knees ached and cracked quietly as she knelt, the silence in her chambers being broken by a soft wincing sound as she finally reached the floor. 

The Daleks had been battering, and we use the term battering loosely as it is the closest thing to describing the sheer force the enemy had been using, the Papal Mainframe's defences for days now. 

Many had died, mostly Tasha's soldiers. Those lost souls were in Tasha's prayers tonight, her eyes cast up towards the skies, searching for a sign from the higher powers.

None.

A heavy, weary sigh slipped passed her lips and she let her body go limp. Alarm bells sounded, another bombardment of attacks. Her mind drifted off to those techniques used in the Great Wars of Earth, and though they would be utterly useless against aliens such as these, Tasha couldn't help but wonder if with the right execution-

Her train of thought was cut off from a loud explosion outside her doors. It sounded as if the blast sight was a good bit away from her door but the force of it was enough to make the room sway.

"What in-"

Scrambling to her feet, she rushed to the door, greeted by two of her soldiers, panicstriken and pale. Tasha's eyes flitted between their faces, visible confusion splayed across her features.

"What was that?"

"Mother Superious, they've breached our defenses..."  
"They're infiltrating the church...."

In the distance, Tasha could hear that all too familiar sound of Dalek weaponry, a forboding sense of doom instilling itself within her heart.

"Mother Superious, you must go. Get the Doctor ..."

The soldier, whose name was Catherine, was correct. Tasha stared at her for a moment, studying her face. She was young, blonde haired and dark blue eyes, rosy cheeks and slightly tanned skin.

As much as the nun wished to help defend her church, she could only do it one way.

The enemy stalked closer, their calling card of a word, now synonymous with the whole species following just short of them.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"It appears they still carry a lacklustre vernacular...Go, my soldiers. Defend yourself with valour..."

They nodded and turned towards the noise of oncoming Daleks, leaving Tasha to turn sharply on her heels and rush back into her chambers towards the transporters. 

What fleeting time she had left, she used instead to try and send a message. A message to the Doctor.

Frantic, frentic and frightened....Her hands moved swiftly across the keyboard, coding in as much as she could. 

Another blast. Screaming, shouting....then another blast.

Tasha froze, a sense of trepidation running through her body.

Turning, just slightly, she could see the flashes of light through the crack between the door and the floor.

Time had left them....

For a moment, Tasha stood, eyes closed as she tried to flush the fear from her body, only wishing to face death with a sense of bravery. For three hundred years she had paced these halls, keeping the peace....

It all ended now.....

The doors flew open, a flash of light and Tasha dropped. 

Silence fell....

Though, the Daleks had other plans.

Mere hours after her first death, Tasha was revived.

To describe the sensation, Tasha would liken it to... breaching water. Coming up from under the surface, feeling the water come up through your nose, filling your lungs....

Coughing, sputtering, she slowly rose.

Had it been a dream?

"Tasha Lem. Associate of the Doc-tor."

No. No it had not. 

Her head rose and she was faced with a syringe which had been attached to the end of a Dalek's claw. The pointed edge just mere inches from her eye.

From her peripheral, she could see four Daleks on either side.

Nine of them in one room....against her? 

It certainly said something about either side. 

Slowly, Tasha continued to rise, coming to a stand. There was a burning taste of acid at the back of her throat, and the slight iron taste of blood.

The Dalek closest to her, the Dalek with the syringe, moved forward.

“Where is the Doctor.”

“Why would I tell you that?”

A brow quirked and she took a step forward, her lips curling into a sneer. 

“Then you will die.”

Another flash of light and she fell.

This happened five times, the same conversation, the same flash of light.

The sixth and final time, she was strapped to a chair. The room was empty, save a few corpses which had been haphazardly left in the middle of the floor, the corpses of her soldiers...One of them being the young Catherine. 

A heavy sense of dread filled Tasha and she felt tears stinging her eyes, tears which had once been forbidden to fall. She had failed them; she had failed them all. She had failed the Doctor. The feeling she felt now was perhaps worse than her death, or perhaps she should say deaths...

It hurt. 

Her head snapped up at the sound of Daleks approaching, had they come to kill her again?

As they entered the room, she stayed silent, her eyes trained on them as they moved forward, equally as silent. Just behind them, she caught the outline of her soldiers and hope was instilled within her again, a brief glimmer of a smile touching her lips onto to fade as they stepped into the light, and she saw. What were once faithful, loyal soldiers- humans, were now puppets. The glowing bulb on the end of that stick, one all too synonymous with these dreadful creatures, it was then she realised what was to happen. Her fate was far worse than death itself, she would have utter control taken away from her. 

As the procedure began, Tasha screamed, pleaded for the Doctor to come and rescue her. Death would have been much more merciful.

Far kinder....

The Daleks were not merciful but they were murderers. Why had they chosen to do this? 

Perhaps due to the nature of the relationship between herself and the Doctor. They knew almost everything about one another, their darkest secrets, their fears, their greatest triumphs ....

The Doctor could not die alone but Tasha had. Tasha died several times and this final time, though she remained breathing and technically alive, she felt as if everything had been taken.

Darkness washed over and she lost grip of her consciousness as the programming was inserted into her, a violation of everything....

She felt the electrodes running along her veins, reprogramming, adapting...

It reached her mind, her heart....her soul, taking everything it could, this beginning the battle.

Tasha screamed. Tasha pleaded and yet, no noise left her lips.

Silence had fallen.....

Tasha Lem was as good as dead


End file.
